This story starts in June 1968 when my dad visited on of his favorite gun shops, Elgin Arms. He had bought dozens of mil-surps for them to sporterize and this rifle was going to be no different. The stock had been sanded by the previous owner and there was a crack in the stock by the pistol grip but that didn't matter to him. The owner told him about the rifle and told him if he found the proper scope it could be worth considerably more. So dad plunked down his $15.60 for the rifle , took it home and hung it on the wall in the basement man cave along with his other rifles only handling it to clean and oil it once a year. Christmas 1976 he gave me the rifle along with the receipt and the story about the scope and over the next 29 years I would look for one anytime I went to a gun show, but with no luck. But in 2005 I stepped into the 21st century and got on line and began to search more actively for a scope, always coming up a day late or a dollar short.

But that all ended in early 2015 when I found me a 4x scope made by the Nippon Typewriter Co. for my rifle. I took it down to show my dad after the scope arrived and he laughed about how his former rifle was sporting a scope that cost almost 80 times what he had paid for it.

Very very nice collectors PRIZE!! I, have this model , but wirh out a scope and mount,
last time i, checked the mount price was $ 100.00. A scope who knows.
Now am I, correct this Japanese rifle is called a Type 97?
Roy

Very very nice collectors PRIZE!! I, have this model , but wirh out a scope and mount,
last time i, checked the mount price was $ 100.00. A scope who knows.
Now am I, correct this Japanese rifle is called a Type 97?
Roy

Thanks Roy, a Type 97 was the designation for the Type 38 sniper (6.5mm) , but the Type 99 designation was used for both the infantry rifle and the sniper rifle. This one is a Type 99, the Type 99 came with 3 different types of scopes the 2.5x (like those used on the Type 97) early in the production, the 4x like this one used on most of the Type99 snipers, and a 4x adjustable ( which this rifle probably came out of the factory with) that is very hard to find and very expensive.